The Parable of the Lost Sheep Small World

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep’."  (Luke 15:4-5)

Today I put together a completely edible small world play based on The Parable of the Lost Sheep. The parable is about the lengths that God will go to to find us if we are lost.  The edible element was inspired by Dooey (my 18 month old) who puts everything in his mouth. (*Edible meaning not toxic, but obviously most things are not good for you if over-consumed*)  Almost every activity we have done has required my careful supervision that Dooey doesn't choke or swallow anything harmful.   I want him to enjoy his play without me constantly pulling things out of his mouth and telling him "Don't eat it!"  So I headed off to the shops yesterday in search of food that could represent the landscape of the small world play.

What we used:

Broccoli

Twiglets (crushed and whole)

Desiccated coconut    

White Marshmallows, chopped (whole marshmallows can be a choking hazard)

Icing 

Scoops and small containers

I cut up the broccoli to use as trees (although it was tricky getting them to stand upright without some careful cutting and propping).  The twiglets were chosen to look like logs (whole) or the ground (crushed).  I sprinkled some coconut over the landscape to represent frost.  (Yesterday the children saw frost for the first time!)  The sheep (yes they are sheep!) were each a quarter of a marshmallow. I drew the markings on the sheep using an icing pen.    

              

I only had enough resources for one small world play so I had the children play with it separately. Dooey's small world didn't involve all the numbered sheep (just 4 sheep) as he doesn't appreciate numbers yet.  Wugs' small world had the sheep numbered in units of 10 (so I tried to include a bit of Maths into the activity).  In his scene, I hid the sheep for him to find and place into the pen.  

Dooey did what Dooey does...eat!  Once the novelty of the food wore off, he started pouring and manipulating the items in the tub.  When he had finished I brought Wugs down and they played together happily, serving each other containers of crushed twiglets.  Wugs discovered all the sheep, placed them into the pen, read out some of the numbers and learned a few others.  I explained to them The Parable of the Lost Sheep which led to a lot of baaaing!  All in all a good activity and at least one full stomach!